The kids had both of these beds, but opted to all squeeze into one.
Then, on November 6th, Alan relinquished command of the squadron and we spent the next three days wrapping up loose ends and getting the house inspection-ready.
We made sure to get a few things done before we left:
Got one last pedi:
Side note - I actually cried while I removed the final bits of polish a few weeks ago. Maybe because I missed Oki and these pedis. Maybe because of the shape my foot was in...
Anaya got a Hello Kitty pedi!
We spent our final night on the island with our two favorite families - the Bass Family joined us for one last fresh sushi dinner and the Murphy Family met up with us for a spin on the giant Ferris wheel overlooking the East China Sea and a lot of the island.
Dark and early on November 9th (about 5:30 a.m., which was about 2:30 p.m. on November 8th in Texas, so you can keep track), we arrived at the passenger terminal on Kadena to check in for our flight. We left our island paradise, embarking on our journey "home" about two hours later. We took a military rotator, which is a commercial flight that is chartered by the military and flies scheduled flights in and out of Okinawa with several stops. Our first stop was about 2.5 hours away, at Iwakuni, where I got to see/walk/feed Rosie. It was great because I was seriously stressed about her. I mean, she's 13. That's like almost 100 in dog years. I just didn't know if she could handle it. Oh, and to make matters worse - she had a seizure (first ever!) about two weeks before the trip. We were at Iwakuni for a couple of hours, maybe three, where the kids got to run around a little, have a snack, charge our iPods, and count one flight off the "flights until we get to see Grandma" countdown. Then we flew to Yokota AB, which was only about an hour-and-a-half away, where I got to see Rosie again. Again, our stop there was about two hours or so, with time to get some food, stretch our legs and cross another flight off the "Grandma countdown." Then we got back on the jet and trekked across the Pacific, 9 hours or so, and landed in Seattle. Upon landing at Sea-Tac, we had exactly an hour to clear immigration, customs, retrieve Rosie in baggage, flag down a cab (which I shared with another passenger who was under the same time constraint I was to get their cat checked in), and get Rosie over to the United cargo office to check her in for her flight. She had to be scheduled on a different flight because our layover in Houston wasn't at least an hour long (it was 56 minutes). And despite our planning, well ahead of time, United called me a week before our flight to tell me they had a scheduled system outage during our travel time and that Rosie would have to spend the night in Houston due to the system outage - they couldn't check any pets in or out during the outage and her flight boarding to San Antonio was during that time. Crap. Seriously, y'all, I was stressed about her. Stressed!! But, I couldn't control it. They assured me someone would be with her all night long and a vet was on-hand. So, after rushing her to cargo and barely making it in time - actually, we were quite late, but it turns out they account for perpetually late people like myself when they give people that "minimum" time. Good for them. The random woman and I made our way back to the terminal, where we had about four or five (six?) hours to kill before our flight to San Antonio via Houston. Luckily, Sea-Tac has a great USO for military members traveling, so we stopped in there to rest, have some snacks and drinks, let the kids play...it was great. Before we knew it, it was time to go find our gate. Our flight to Houston was smooth and we made our connection without a problem. At this point, the kids were getting really excited about only having one more flight before we saw Grandma. When the pilot announced our descent and we heard the wheels lower, the kids were literally squealing with delight, expressing their excitement about seeing Grandma. It was really cute, actually. Nice moment. Until we felt the plane ascend again and the pilot came back on and let us know that the plane landing in front of us had run off the runway and we had to divert to Austin. Now, our kids had been such troupers the entire trip. Here we are, 31+ hours in, 10 p.m., Saturday, November 9th, and there hadn't really been any major meltdowns (we did have Anaya, so of course there had been minor ones). They did great, all things considered. But this? This was too much. All at once, they began to cry and you know what? I couldn't blame them! I wanted to cry, too! So, to Austin we went, where we were supposed to land, refuel, and get back to San Antonio all in about an hour. Except that the guy who drives the fuel truck at the Austin airport had already been sent home for the night. It was after 10 p.m., after all. So we sat there and waited while that guy got in his truck, drove back to work, and then refueled our jet. Then, we headed back to San Antonio and finally landed, well after midnight (12:40, I think). Alan had started the stopwatch on his watch when we left our hotel room in Okinawa. It had been right at 34 hours. Not. Kidding.
At some point in the evening, we had a "Welcome Home" group, but they dispersed with the delay. My sweet Mom had brought Chick-fil-a for Alan, which was cold but he still ate it with a smile. We piled into two trucks and headed to Mom's house. I am pretty sure I've never slept better in my life. All I could think was "Wow. I hope I never have to do that again." But you know what? I'd do it all again. We loved Okinawa and we still miss it so much. We miss our friends there, we miss the sun, the beaches, the everything. It was a good place for our family to be.
We had tons of fun catching up with everyone in Texas. We bought two cars, leased a house, visited family and friends, and Mom even threw a repatriation party for us, which was great. I actually have pictures!
Okinawa Family!!
Catching up with Pennie's kids!
At the zoo with Brooke
Fishing!
God bless!
